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Okay, I get it. Terrorism’s everywhere and you can never be too safe, yada yada yada. But was this really required, Transport Security Administration?

There certainly are a lot of TSA search stories these days but it’s an important topic, so we’ll keep covering it as long as there are interesting stories. The latest, found via Slashdot, is of a three year old girl who got a full pat down while screaming at the TSA agents not to touch her. Apparently, she was initially upset at having to send her teddy bear through the machine and she then refused to go through the scanning device herself. Her actions somehow set off the scanner’s alarm, leading to a TSA agent trying to do a forced pat down. The girl’s father is a reporter and caught 17-seconds of the pat down on his mobile phone.

Um. Why, on God’s green and blue planet, would you put a 3-year-old through this crap? Is the US government that overly paranoid that they’ll traumatize a kid for the sake of national security? I mean, I know politically the place has gone straight to hell in a handbag the last 10 years or so. Really, I do. But I always figured even that broken system had its limits. Apparently, if it does, we haven’t found them yet. Talk about your perfect way to up the anxiety level. If that kid ever willingly boards a plane again, I’ll be freaking amazed. Meantime, I’m really hoping for a lawsuit or something. Just goes to show ya, any good idea can be a very wicked nightmare in the hands of an asshole. Thanks for that, TSA. Now, please, go die.